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- Many New Hampshire voters will use poll scanners which can be at the least 15 years previous in the upcoming primary.
- Election specialists say the aging scanners do not pose extra safety dangers, however issues come up resulting from age and potential breakdowns.
- Franklin, a small metropolis, has no backup machines, and if one breaks down, they resort at hand counting.
When New Hampshire voters solid their ballots in Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary, many will accomplish that utilizing scanners which can be at the least 15 years previous — with some doubtlessly relationship again to Bill Clinton’s presidency.
Election specialists say the aging AccuVote poll tabulators in use throughout roughly half the state’s cities and cities don’t pose extra safety dangers. The concern is their age.
With a dwindling provide of substitute components, breakdowns may create Election Day complications for native election officers, who is likely to be compelled to depend ballots by hand — a course of that would delay reporting their outcomes. Malfunctions and ballot-counting delays in different states in current years have generally been used to advertise conspiracy theories that undermine public confidence in the vote, regardless of no proof of any widespread issues with voting machines.
Franklin, a small metropolis about 20 miles north of the state capital, has no wiggle room if one thing goes awry with its scanners.
Nick Zaharias of Derry, N.H., a public witness, masses a check poll onto a vote counting machine whereas testing machines earlier than the New Hampshire primary on the Derry Municipal Center on Jan. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
“We have three machines and three polling places. That’s it, no backup,” stated Olivia Zink, a member of the Franklin City Council who is also govt director of the voter advocacy group Coalition for Open Democracy. “If one goes down, we hand count.”
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Zink, who will probably be working at her native polling place Tuesday, stated she is much less anxious about hand counting even when turnout is powerful among the many 4,500 registered voters as a result of the poll comprises solely the presidential primary. She urged everybody to be affected person if outcomes are delayed. One potential glitch: If it’s snowy or wet, damp ballots can mess up a poll scanner.
“If it’s a sunny, beautiful day, we’re in great shape,” Zink stated.
Reducing the possibilities of a significant disruption is the poll itself, with only a single race and a state requirement that vote counting proceed uninterrupted till completed. New Hampshire will maintain primaries for state and native races later in the yr.
All New Hampshire voters mark their poll by hand, however how these ballots are counted depends upon town or city. Just below half choose at hand depend and have finished so for years, however these are among the many least populated in the state. The most populous cities and cities use machine tabulators, so most ballots solid in the state are counted electronically utilizing the AccuVote scanners.
The identical kind of poll scanners are utilized by native voting jurisdictions in 5 different states, in response to Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that tracks U.S. voting tools.
“You could say it’s primitive technology. You could say it’s simple and reliable technology. Both of those things can be true,” stated Mark Lindeman, the group’s coverage and technique director.
He stated New Hampshire’s tabulators have been saved in good situation and that the largest problem for election officers is discovering substitute components. He sees the worst-case situation as native election officers having to resort at hand counting as a result of a tabulator has failed and so they don’t have entry to a backup.
“As worst cases go, that’s a pretty good one,” Lindeman stated. “The ballots are safe. This will not prevent New Hampshire voters from voting or prevent New Hampshire voters from having their votes counted.”
Even so, any issues with voting machines or poll counting gadgets present a gap for individuals who wish to solid doubt on the end result. Former President Donald Trump, who received this week’s Iowa caucuses however faces a doubtlessly more durable check in New Hampshire, commonly indicators that an anticipated shut election will probably be “rigged.”
His false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, which he misplaced to Joe Biden, has produced a tsunami of conspiracy theories about voting machines.
“If there are major failures and results come really late, and if there is not information ahead of time to the public that we might be hand-counting and what that involves — in a worst-case scenario the vacuum that leaves could allow folks to come forward with conspiracy theories and question what the results are,” stated McKenzie St. Germain with the voter advocacy group America Votes NH.
In Derry, south of Manchester, Town Clerk Tina Guilford examined her eight tabulators this week to make sure they had been working correctly and counting ballots appropriately. It’s a course of being repeated throughout the state as native election officers put together for the primary.
Derry’s tabulators are roughly turn-of-the-century know-how — every about 20 to 22 years previous, Guilford stated. The city agreed to purchase replacements that officers hope will probably be in place by March when new tabulators will probably be licensed to be used in the state.
Derry, with its almost 20,000 registered voters, doesn’t want all eight AccuVote scanners operating on the identical time, so that they have choices if one had been to be taken out of service, Guilford stated. It has occurred earlier than, when hand sanitizer gummed up a machine in 2020 throughout the pandemic.
“I don’t foresee any issues,” she stated.
Secretary of State David Scanlan, New Hampshire’s prime election official, stated he has been encouraging native officers to verify they’ve sufficient employees to deal with any hand counting that could be essential.
It’s anticipated that each jurisdiction should depend some ballots by hand given Biden’s determination to skip the state’s primary in favor of a revamped Democratic schedule that elevated South Carolina over Iowa and New Hampshire. That has prompted a write-in marketing campaign for him, and any ballots with write-in candidates should be tallied by hand.
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In current years, hand counting has gained favor amongst these pushing conspiracy theories concerning the 2020 election as they search to ban voting machines and digital tabulators. While hand counting is used in some components of the nation, it often happens in small jurisdictions the place the method is manageable.
Last yr, New Hampshire lawmakers rejected a proposal that might have required all votes to be counted by hand.
Experts say not solely are machines sooner, however research have proven they’re extra correct. Many election officers do depend on some measure of hand counting as a part of their post-election course of to confirm that the machines labored appropriately.
Scanlan stated he has been encouraging voters to know that it’s commonplace for some machines to have issues and harassed that election officers have plans to cope with it, even when it means a delay in releasing outcomes.
“That just happens in any election,” he stated. “I would expect that this election is going to be no different than any other election we’ve conducted in the past.”
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